


Disown Fear

by innocent_until_proven_geeky



Series: The Clone Wars Season 7 [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:21:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23505310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/innocent_until_proven_geeky/pseuds/innocent_until_proven_geeky
Summary: Ahsoka, afraid and hurting, asks Rex to teach her basic hand-to-hand combat.
Relationships: Ahsoka Tano & Original Clone Trooper Character(s), CT-7567 | Rex & Ahsoka Tano
Series: The Clone Wars Season 7 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1707868
Comments: 12
Kudos: 93





	Disown Fear

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lisianpeia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lisianpeia/gifts), [primasveraas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/primasveraas/gifts), [FlyingFreeYT](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlyingFreeYT/gifts), [Oh_DAMNeron](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oh_DAMNeron/gifts), [spaghett](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaghett/gifts).



> This fic is based (loosely) on "Where did you learn to fight like that?" "My older brother taught me." in Gone with a Trace (s7e5). It's definitely cool to think of Anakin as the older brother, but frankly (given how he fights Clovis in s6) I don't know that he has quite the skills to teach Ahsoka what she does in s7. Plus, Rex as older brother? It's canon now, I don't make the rules.  
> Title is from "Airfield" by Enter Shikari.  
> And, of course, a shoutout to the Clone Wars Centre discord for your constant and unwavering support. Everyone needs a discord channel like you. <3

Knocking Asajj Ventress’s lightsabers out of her hands after Ahsoka’s own had gone flying seemed like a good idea at the time.

It took about two seconds for her to realize that it was, in fact, the worst idea she’d ever had while fighting Ventress; she had taken a pounding far worse than she had ever received in lightsaber class.

 _Resolute_ was now hurtling through hyperspace, however, which gave her a chance to rest her aching and bruised body.

She had come out mostly fine; not on top, but fine. Masters Skywalker and Kenobi had appeared in the hangar, just like they always did, and they scared Ventress away, just like they always did. So Ahsoka was okay. She had walked away.

But there were a few moments there when she was afraid she wouldn’t.

A knock at the door distracted her from her thoughts.

“Come in!” she called. She had been ordered by Kix to rest after her fight with Ventress, so even though it made her uncomfortable to lie down when there was someone in the room with her, she would. No one ignored Kix’s orders except Rex, and he had paid the price enough times that even he was starting to learn.

The door slid open. “You didn’t come down to eat,” Rex said from the jamb. “General Skywalker sent me up here. He’s busy finishing whatever leftovers Dacre and Rile thought they were saving for us, so I made sure to bring a plate.” He stepped over the threshold and over to the bed, and didn’t stop talking when he held the plate out for her. “You know, Commander, I don’t think this is what Kix meant when he said to rest. Your muscles are going to get stiffer lying around like that. Come down to the gym with me. Torrent Platoon Aurek is set for physical training. We can teach you some stretches.”

Well, there was an idea.

“Can I eat first?”

Rex smirked. “Eat on the way, Commander. Time’s wasting.”

So, feeling battered and sore but a little more like Ahsoka, she swung her legs out of the bed and followed them with the rest of her body, limping just slightly to favor her right ankle. Rex led the way out of her cabin--she and Master Skywalker were the only ones to get private quarters, which never really sat right with her, although the men insisted it was because she was an officer and not because she was a Jedi--and down the corridor to the lift.

“This is good,” Ahsoka said with a mouth full. “Did Dacre pick up some local ingredients recently?”

“I think Rile found some spices, actually. She managed to make our normal rations taste like something.”

Ahsoka grinned around the food, and Rex held his hands out.

“Commander, please, chew with your mouth closed. I know that’s what they taught you in the Temple.”

After swallowing, Ahsoka countered with, “How do you know that wasn’t a Togrutan custom?”

He rolled his eyes at her and turned toward the lift door, which was about to open. “You clearly don’t know that Galactic Customs was one of our required classes during the last two years on Kamino.”

“Actually, I didn’t know that.” She shoveled more food into her mouth. “You probably know more about my own people than I do.”

The door slid open, and Rex, at a loss for words, swept through it and up the corridor, forgetting for a moment to wait for his smaller, slightly injured companion.

“That wasn’t entirely true,” she continued. She followed him as if she hadn’t said anything abnormal or potentially upsetting. “We have Galactic Customs classes at the Temple, too. But I stopped mine early, because of the war.”

Rex opened the door to the gym and waved Ahsoka in. “We did too. Probably not as early as you, though.”

When they entered, Ahsoka had just barely finished the plate--she ate quickly, and it wasn’t really a lot of food to begin with. Dacre, Rile, and Kix often worked together to calculate exact caloric and nutritional intake needed in various situations, and they must have for her meal today because it was perfectly satisfying. She set it aside, on one of the hard metal chairs, and stepped further into the room.

All the clones were in their blacks, and those who had been wearing armor for one reason or another appeared to have taken it off in the gym. Piles of armor balanced precariously and haphazardly around the edges of the room, which was divided into three sections: cardio, a matted section for sparring which Ahsoka and Master Skywalker often used as a lightsaber salle when the men weren’t there, and weights. In one corner of the middle section, Jesse and Hardcase moved slowly, blocking punches from each other. It reminded Ahsoka of a kata. In the center, Sketch, Yolotli, and Zan sat in a triangle, chattering at each other and stretching their bodies out over their legs. On one of the weight machines, Guide was working some part of his legs while No Hits spotted. Krill had just stepped into the squat rack with Counter as xir spotter. On the other side of the room, Fives and Echo raced on a pair of treadmills they had clearly pushed closer together than they were meant to be. Based on their expressions, Ahsoka guessed Echo was winning. She wasn’t sure how you could race on a treadmill, but they were having fun.

For the second time in about eight minutes, Rex shook her out of her reverie. “Hey!” he called. It got the platoon’s attention. Ahsoka turned to him and found that he had also removed his armor. “You rookies stretch without me?”

Krill put xir bar back and stepped sheepishly to the mat with Counter following. Echo and Fives ignored Rex, which they probably could do because they were ARC troopers and technically not in Rex’s platoon, or Torrent Company, or even really the 501st even though they still wore 501st colors on their armor. No Hits patted Guide’s shoulder to get his attention; it was only then that Ahsoka realized he was wearing earphones. He had probably gotten them smuggled in for him; she would have to get some for more of Torrent’s troops, as they were a luxury not even Cody could afford. She distinctly remembered Obi-Wan asking her what kind she thought Cody would like, and then buying them himself with money she was sure was meant to go somewhere else.

“Hey, Commander,” Krill said, sitting down next to Ahsoka. “Did Rex get Kix’s permission to bring you down here?”

“Probably not,” No Hits interjected, sitting on Krill’s other side. She smiled and held out her fist for Ahsoka to bump. When Ahsoka only looked at it, confused, No Hits pulled back her fist a little awkwardly. “Even if Rex promised Ahsoka was just going to watch, Kix would have a fit.”

“Nah,” Fives said, and Ahsoka realized he and Echo had joined the growing circle. “Kix isn’t nearly as bad as Dance.”

“That’s only because Dance wants to impress Kix. They want him to put in a good word for the next available promotion.”

“So they can be even scarier, probably.” Echo grinned and plopped down in his customary spot at Fives’s side. “Sit down, Commander. We’re stretching.”

Rex tugged at her arm and pulled her down next to him. “We’re on a first-name basis in here. Are you okay with that, Commander?”

Fighting was nice; it got out all her excess energy, and droids or sparring weren’t the same as fighting other people to the death. But the constant loss of life, and the other parts of war, especially her rank, were just as uncomfortable to her as to most Jedi. She nodded vigorously. “Please, call me Ahsoka when I’m in here with you.”

Guide and Yolotli high-fived. “Another one bites the dust!” Yolotli laughed.

“Yol’,” Rex chided.

“Don’t tell me you weren’t thinking it, too,” she jibed back.

Rex flushed, and Ahsoka laughed heartily, which hurt her ribcage.

“I’ll accept it,” she replied, patting Rex on the shoulder once. It was weird with the bodyglove and without the armor, but he didn’t seem to mind. Ahsoka supposed the clones were used to physical contact when the Jedi weren’t looking. “Anyone want to tell me why he called you rookies?”

“He likes making fun of them.” Kix had entered the room, already out of his armor. “What are you doing down here, Commander?” he asked as he walked around and took a seat between Jesse and Hardcase.

“Stretching, apparently.” She grinned, baring her sharp teeth. “That is okay, isn’t it, Kix?”

Kix glared, hard, at Rex. “If I see her doing anything other than stretching--”

“You’ll have my head. I know, Kix. You’ve mentioned something like that at least a dozen times in the last month.”

A snicker went around the circle, which had developed into two layers to fit everyone in the matted section of the room. Ahsoka joined in.

She had spent about six months with these clones now, and Platoon Aurek was full of the best veterans in Torrent Company, but she had never felt particularly close to any of them. Rex was the singular exception, and only because he had been there to show her around on Christophsis. Now, though, laughing with them as Rex and Kix bickered about Rex taking too many risks with his safety (“I’m a _captain_!” “I’ve already explained that when it comes to your health, I outrank you. Now stop letting Skywalker throw you--anywhere!”), she felt a camaraderie she never had before. Her heart was light and the Force signatures around her glowed warm with comfort and stability.

“Anyway,” Rex said when he finally gave in, trying to act dignified, “I figured that after that adventure planetside, she could use some good stretching.”

“I stretch before lightsaber practice,” Ahsoka chimed in.

“I said good stretching,” Rex replied.

More laughter around the circle.

“We’re going to start with some sitting stretches. Since we all choose to do different activities in different orders, we all warm up and cool down with static stretching. It’s best for flexibility, too. So what you want to do is put your legs straight out in front of you--” He cut himself off. “No, like Kix. Straight out in front of you. And then, keep your back straight, and you lean forward at the hips. Back straight, good posture--there you go.”

The rest of the circle followed suit. Most of them could reach out and grasp their feet, although one or two were only barely touching their toes. Ahsoka tried to copy them and inhaled sharply at the pain.

“Only go as far as you can comfortably reach,” Kix suggested. “You should feel the stretch in your hamstrings--those muscles in the back of your thighs.”

Ahsoka nodded.

“I thought you knew basic anatomy but I wasn’t sure what you remembered. You know what those are, though, good. You should feel the stretch but it should feel good. If it starts to hurt, you’re stretching too far.”

Ahsoka pulled back a little and tried not to be too disappointed at the fact that she could only just reach her ankles. Still, Yolotli cheered--Ahsoka was already beginning to learn that Yolotli was far more excitable than she let on in the field--and the rest of the circle praised her.

Then, Rex began counting, along with Kix and Echo, and the rest of the circle counted back.

“One.”

“Two!”

“Three.”

“Four!”

All the way to thirty, by which point Ahsoka felt the stretch becoming easier.

Every muscle they stretched was like that. It took several minutes, but by the end of it Ahsoka felt a little less battered.

And then, just like that, everyone broke off, back to what they were doing when Ahsoka and Rex arrived.

After making Ahsoka sit in the hard chair she had put her plate on, Rex and Kix joined Jesse and Hardcase in their corner of the mats. They took turns watching each other in different pairings, correcting each others’ form, demonstrating potential ways to defend against different attacks.

And then they began sparring.

It was like nothing Ahsoka had seen before. Lightsaber dueling and sparring was intense and rather enjoyable to watch when death wasn’t a threat, but this was entirely different and totally weaponless. Their bodies moved so easily, punching and blocking and hitting and dodging. It took about ten minutes before Jesse, who was currently paired with Rex, finally went down. Rex held out his hand to help his brother up, and they embraced.

Jesse went to the far corner of the room to grab a water pack, then came to sit by Ahsoka.

“How did you do that?” she asked.

Jesse was soaked in sweat, and his face was red with a heat that radiated from him. He didn’t breathe terribly heavily, though.

“Well, we’ve trained for it since we were cadets,” he offered after he had taken a few sips. He held the water out to her. When she took it, he continued. “We had some instructors who thought it was important that we be trained in hand-to-hand, so we all learned it and we try to practice it when we get the chance. Sometimes the clankers can’t know you’re coming.” He laughed. “I must be tired, though, it only took Rex about ten minutes to knock me on my _shebs_. I’d be lousy to try to sneak up on a droid with right now.” He chuckled. “Bet you’ve been training with a lightsaber as long as you could walk, too.”

Ahsoka tilted her head back and forth, conceding. “Yeah. Master Skywalker says I’m an advanced student. But he always tells me my weapon is my life. What if I lose it?”

Jesse shrugged and held his hand out to take the water back. Ahsoka handed it back to him. "We're there with you. It's our job to protect you, Ahsoka."

"But you're not always there." She thought back to the fight with Ventress, the feeling of helplessness. Her legs shook a little on the seat. "What happens when I'm alone?"

"Like yesterday?" Jesse took a swig of water.

Across the mats, Hardcase dropped Kix. Jesse cheered and raised his arms, splashing himself and Ahsoka. She ignored it.

"Yeah, like yesterday," she replied. "I was alone, and I didn't have my lightsaber. And when I tried to get rid of hers--well." She gestured to herself. She knew there were a couple visible bruises. "It wasn't the best decision I've ever made."

Jesse made a sound like he was fighting down a laugh. "I don't have the answers, Ahsoka. I'm just a clone. I protect you when I can, because that's what I was made to do, but I don't know much besides fighting."

Hardcase had helped Kix up and handed him a towel; they and Rex made their way to where Jesse and Ahsoka were sitting.

"Heard something about fighting," Rex said. "I recommend not getting into it with that hag Ventress again, eh, Ahsoka?" He grinned. "We're gonna do weights now, Jesse. Want to join us?"

Kix held out a hand and pulled Jesse to standing. "Sorry, Commander," he said, slinging an arm around Jesse's shoulders. "You're still on strict orders to stay right here."

"But it's boring!" Ahsoka exclaimed.

"Read a book," Hardcase suggested.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "You of all people--"

The four clones laughed, and Jesse even clapped Ahsoka on the shoulder before they walked away.

It was another half hour or so of clones sparring in the center, coming to join her and chat when they finally needed a break or when they ended up on the ground. She got to know several of them better than she had ever really expected. Yolotli, like she thought earlier, was excitable and loud when she was in the gym. Guide was the opposite, always cool, always calm. Echo and Fives had grown up together and they showed it; Ahsoka discovered that Fives took the position of older brother, even though they were the same age.

Kix called them back to the center to stretch for the last ten minutes of the hour, and Yolotli grabbed Ahsoka's hand, dragging her into the circle again.

"Remember not to push yourself too hard if you don't think you can handle it," Yolotli murmured as they sat down together.

"Right," Ahsoka said.

The stretching routine was exactly the same as before, and already Ahsoka's muscles were a little looser and more flexible. She was able to stretch further than she had the first time around, and it felt good.

Rex stood up first. "Alright, back to your regularly scheduled duties," he said, his face falling back into the Captain expression he always wore.

The "Yes, sir!" from around the room was scattered, less precise than it normally was. Something about it felt right to Ahsoka.

She picked up her plate from it's spot by the chair and fell into place next to Rex, who was replacing his armor. "Could you teach me to fight like that?" she asked.

"What?" Rex replied. "You want to put that lightsaber away? I thought that weapon was your life."

Ahsoka grumbled. "Yeah, but if I lose it, I don't actually want to lose the rest of my life, too."

Rex paused "Did something happen yesterday?"

"Besides getting into a fight with Ventress and having to be rescued by Master Skywalker and Master Kenobi?"

"During your fight."

Ahsoka didn't want to talk about it, so she just brushed the question off. "Oh, the usual."

Rex raised an eyebrow, but didn't push further. "How do you feel after stretching?"

Ahsoka welcomed the subject change. "Better than I did when you came to get me this morning." She twisted the plate in her hands. "Do you need help with that?"

Rex was having trouble clipping his pauldron to the shoulder of his cuirass. "No, thank you," he said. "Watch."

"Watch what?"

Rex put his finger to his lips, giving Ahsoka a sly smile, and continued quietly piecing together his armor over his blacks. When he leaned down to put on the greaves, Jesse, who was almost in his full armor, came over holding his own pauldrons. He put them down and grabbed Rex's, first the small standard issue one, and put it on his shoulder, clipping it into place. Then he grabbed the bigger captain and commander's pauldron. When he finished, Rex was done buckling his greaves; he took Jesse's pauldrons in hand and clipped them to his shoulders. They gripped each other's arms for a moment, and then Jesse beckoned Hardcase and Kix to follow him. Kix was back in his armor; Hardcase apparently hadn't worn any into the gym in the first place.

Rex buckled his kama around his waist. "I can always count on a brother to help."

Ahsoka looked around the gym. Most of the platoon had already left through various side doors, but those who were still there were quietly helping each other with difficult pieces of armor.

Rex started out the door. "Come on, Commander."

Ahsoka followed Rex to the lift. "You do that every time?" she asked.

"Of course we do. If there's anything one of us has trouble with, we can count on each other to help. We watch each other's backs and we help put on each other's armor. It's part of being _aliit_."

Ahsoka had never heard the word before. "What does that mean?"

Rex pushed the button to go up, then leaned back and crossed his arms. Since Kix, Jesse, and Hardcase had just come this way, it would probably be a few minutes before the lift returned. " _Aliit_?" he asked.

She nodded. "I've never heard that word before."

"It's Mando'a," Rex explained. "The language of Mandalore. Jango Fett was a Mandalorian, and he made sure we knew our heritage. _Aliit_ means family."

Ahsoka pondered this. "You always call each other brother. I didn't realize you meant that literally."

"Some of us do. Some of us don't. Being a clone isn't like anything else in the galaxy. We don't have parents, so technically we aren't brothers. But it's the closest thing to a real family we have. Whether they mean it literally like I do, or they mean it figuratively, every clone knows that a matching face means safety. It means home."

"The Jedi are kind of like that for me." Ahsoka's eyes widened, and she backtracked immediately. "I mean, we're not clones. I don't see a face that looks like mine and think family. But if I see a lightsaber and the robes, I know I've found someone who will watch over me."

Rex smiled. "What about a blaster and some plastoid armor?"

"That too."

He knocked his shoulder into hers just as the lift doors opened. "If you ever need to talk about the whole Ventress thing, let me know." He motioned her inside. "And remember to take that plate to the galley, or Dacre and Rile will never let me take anything from the mess again."

"You're not coming?"

Rex grinned. "I just finished an overnight watch. I'm going to bed, and there are better lifts to take to get me there. I'll see you later, Commander."

Ahsoka waved and hit the button that would take her to the mess deck. "I'll see you, Captain!"

:::

Ahsoka shouted and sat upright. The room around her was dark; when she stretched her hands out, she felt sheets and blankets.

A nightmare.

She buried her face in her hands for a moment, and then tried to slow her breathing.

It was hard with the footsteps pounding down the corridor.

Her door slid open without warning.

"Are you alright, Commander?"

It was Yolotli, holding her weapon ready. Her helmet was adorned with a constellation that Ahsoka didn't recognize except that it marked Yolotli as Yolotli. She stepped into the room, and lowered her blaster when she saw it was clear. "Are you alright?" she asked again.

Ahsoka sighed, then nodded. "Thanks, Yolotli. It was just a dream."

Yolotli looked around the room one more time. "Need to talk about it?"

Ahsoka shivered. She didn't really want to talk about Ventress getting the better of her again. It was clearly bothering her a great deal, but talking about it meant admitting that she wasn't as good a Jedi as she wanted to be. She shook her head. "Thanks, but I think I'm going to go for a walk." She got out of bed and found that her muscles had tensed and stiffened in the night. "I'll comm if I need anything."

Yolotli nodded sharply and stepped out of the room, giving Ahsoka some privacy and some time to think.

She knelt to the drawer where she kept her lightsaber and commlink and clipped them both to her belt. The weight of them was a comfort. It felt much better to walk anywhere on the ship with them.

Ahsoka made her way down the ship's corridors. It was the middle of the night cycle, so the lights were dimmed and on some sort of non-UV setting.

She wasn't totally sure where Rex's bunkroom was, but she had a general idea. Most of the officers slept near the bridge, including some of the captains of other companies within the 501st and, but Rex chose to sleep in the bunkroom with his men. She knew where the men slept.

When she got to the bunkrooms, a clone she didn't know by name yet stopped her. "Where are you off to, Commander?"

"I'd like to see Captain Rex," she answered. "Is he down here?"

"Something wrong?" But even as he said it, the clone shrugged, and gestured down the corridor. "Third door on the left. I think he's sleeping, don't know if he has a night shift, but he shares with five other troopers and I know at least two of them like their beauty rest. Good night, Commander." He gave a half-hearted salute before he walked away, turning into another bunkroom. He was probably just about to get some sleep himself.

She found the third door and breathed deeply before palming it open. She was anxious about waking the others; she knew they were all fairly light sleepers, by the Kaminoans' breeding and by their time on the battlefield. Any unexpected wake-up call could end in a fight.

It wasn't too difficult to find Rex, curled up on his side on the bottom bunk to the right of the door. He had one of his blasters half-poking out of the drawer closest to his hands, and if she had learned anything from when she saw him asleep on their missions together, he had a vibroblade clutched in one hand.

Maybe this was a mistake. She would just go for a walk, or maybe talk to her Master. Master Skywalker had had nightmares--

"Ahsoka?" said a groggy voice.

She whirled. Rex was halfway to sitting in his bunk. Much more than that and he would hit his head on the one above him. She was right about the vibroblade; his right hand had uncurled from around it, depositing it on the meager bedspread but still hovering over it.

"Sorry," Rex said. "Commander." He blinked hard a couple times, then slid his legs out of his bunk. "What are you doing here, Commander? Are you okay?"

Ahsoka hadn't thought this far ahead. "I'm... fine," she lied.

"You're in my bunkroom."

"I got lost on my way to the gym."

Rex smirked sleepily at her. "You're a terrible liar. That was a horrible attempt at an excuse." He opened the door to the bunkroom and walked out. Ahsoka didn't see much else to do but follow.

"You were dreaming about Ventress," Rex guessed, a bit louder now that they didn't have to worry about waking sleeping soldiers.

Ahsoka couldn't really get around that one, so she shrugged and nodded. "That obvious?"

"Two nights after you fight her for your life you decide to come to a clone for comfort instead of your master? Can't get much more obvious than that."

"Should I have gone to Master Skywalker?" Ahsoka asked. She would be overthinking this decision for a long time to come, she could already tell.

"Well, he is a Jedi," Rex suggested. "That could be a good thing. Or it could end in him giving you some Jedi advice that won't actually help you in the moment. But I could give you some clone advice that won't actually help, and he probably wants to know when something's wrong with his Padawan."

Ahsoka sighed. "This was a mistake. I'm sorry I woke you up, Rex. I'll let you go--"

"No you won't. We're going to talk about this over hot chocolate, and then we're going to go to Kix so he can give you something to help you sleep."

"Hot chocolate isn't distributed to the Army."

Rex grinned, a little bit of a manic glint in his eye. "You think too highly of me, Commander. I'm in charge of half the contraband smuggling rings on this ship."

He makes the hot chocolate himself. She didn't know he had the codes to the galley, even as a captain, and she had a sneaking suspicion that he wasn't actually supposed to. Still, the sweet, warm drink is inviting, and she's definitely not going to get Rex in trouble over a little bit of contraband.

Ahsoka told him about the fight with Ventress, about the blows that had knocked the wind out of her and that had split her head open. Or at least it felt that way, especially when she got a fist to her lekku. She told him about the terror she felt, an emotion she thought she wasn't supposed to have as a Jedi, except she did. She told him about the dreams, about how they were so much worse, about how in them, Ventress still had her lightsabers, or Ventress would be beating someone she cared about to a pulp instead of her.

And he listened. He drank his hot chocolate slowly, until it had almost cooled enough to no longer really be hot chocolate anymore, and listened, and when she needed to breathe through the welling tears he just waited.

"Better?" he asked when she was finished.

"What?"

"Do you feel better? For some people it's enough to just talk about it. Other people need advice, or they need to spend their energy on something, or they need to practice so they feel more powerful than the thing that upset them. Do you feel better?"

Ahsoka shrugged, then shook her head. "I feel like I could sleep tonight, but... I don't want to do this again."

:::

That's how they end up spending each morning in the gym with Platoon Aurek. It didn't take long, split among healing meditations, bacta, and stretches, for Kix to clear Ahsoka for more strenuous exercise. She spent the next couple mornings crowded by most of Aurek, especially Yolotli, inviting her to spot for them or join them in their exercises, and occasionally she did.

But the bulk of her time was spent with Rex, who, over the course of nearly three years, starting with basic form and ending with her throwing him to the mats three times in a row, taught her how to fight.


End file.
